Customer Reviews

Designing with CSS for a Beautiful Web

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have also read Transcending CSS, so was not sure how much more this DVD could offer but i'm a big fan of Andy Clarke, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised with the layout and step by step layout of the DVD. Andy provides realistic examples and walks you through the html and css as he develops a fictitious site called "Activate the Death Ray". Having developed quite a few websites myself and work day to day as a web developer a lot of the dvd was re-enforcing concepts I already understood, but it is always great to hear them from a modern day CSS master such as Andy. I did pull away with some nifty css tricks that I am certainly going to add to my collection and will make developing for the web a bit easier.

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars, because as I was watching it jumped back to the chapter menu (which was quite annoying) after some of them ended, rather than just playing through. Bloopers at the end were funny, wish Andy had been a bit more of the "blooper's" Andy during, would have made it a bit more fun.

Overall, well done, a lot of stuff to put into one dvd and i'm passing it around the dev team where i'm at to make sure everyone is up to speed with standards compliant web development and have at the least a basic idea of design concepts, such as typography and color.

If you aren't sure, buy it. You can get it on [...] for cheaper than amazon too.

This video was incredibly helpful. I am a professional web designer who regularly reads blogs, pokes around sites, and reviews CSS books, so I didn't expect to learn much. And, when it came to the box model or specifying colors, I didn't.

But seeing the working methods and process, and hearing about the thought process behind the design steps, was incredibly helpful. You walk through making a linear outline of the page content (which makes it accessible and well-structured) in a word processor and then HTML, then styling the typography, roughly laying out the page, and then lots of finishing touches like beautiful buttons, image replacement, etc.

I ordered this DVD as inspiration before starting a new client project, and I already feel like they're getting more than they originally paid for!

This video shows the how and why of moving to standards compliant accessible web design. In it, CSS wizard, Andy Clarke presents his belief that creating a web site should be approached from a browser instead of from a fixed mock up of the design. He explains how end users can alter a layout as they often enlarge or shrink web pages to fit their screens or to make the print easier to read. Instead of beginning with a model that's done on a rigid page meant for print he relates how using a browser will let a design flow through all the changes that might be affected by the end user or viewing device.

Along the way, Andy covers the basics of CSS layouts, as well as working with type and color to enhance a design. His methods, tools and resources are shared. I particularly liked the way he pulls the background color throughout the other areas of a website. The humorous outtakes at the end of the video show a more comical side than is seen in the main portion.

If you haven't already been convinced to move to a more modern approach when building websites or need a refresher on why to do so, this video will be a valuable tool. Following Andy's advice will save work time as well as enhance design skills. I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD and would recommend it to anyone wishing to reinforce their web authoring ability.

Useful concepts for how to design with css in the browser... but it falls apart at the end, in the "Putting It All Together" section. Basically, all he does is read his code to you... Kind of irritating, to be honest.

Showing the html and the css side by side would have been helpful, but they are shown separately. As a result, I kept having to go back and forth in the video to try to see the relationship between the two. Finally, I just gave up. Also, for some reason the files on my disc don't match the ones he describes... I have no "extras" folder, for example, and many of the files he describes aren't located anywhere on the disc. What gives?

It would have been helpful if the CD contained a raw html file, so that you could actually build the site along with him as he's showing you how it grows. But all that was provided was the end result html and css, so there's really nothing you can do but listen to him recite code, and wish that he would take a drink of water to get rid of his chronic dry mouth.